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In the early stages of the war sport was seen as a fertile site for recruitment, and this
film shows 17,000 spectators crammed into the Sydney Stadium to witness Les Darcy defend his world
middleweight title against American Eddie McGoorty in 1915. An intense affair, Police
ended the fight in the 15th round after McGoorty was knocked down
for the fourth time. Beforehand the Premier of NSW, William Holman, and the opposition leader, Charles
Wade, were scheduled to give a recruitment speech.

However, as it became obvious that
the war would not be over quickly, and as casualties from Gallipoli
mounted, sport was condemned as a distraction from fighting and the home front war effort.

In this excerpt, Millicent Baxter recalls her conversion to pacifism during World War I as a result of reading a letter
written by her future husband, the pacifist objector Archibald Baxter.
Millicent had not then met Archibald, but the letter to his parents, published
in the newspaper Truth, moved her to
investigate his pacifist viewpoint. In the face of popular patriotism, she adopted
those views for herself.

At the outbreak of the war, a commonly expressed concern was the need to enlist quickly in case the fighting ended before New Zealand forces could take part in what was widely imagined to be a great adventure. On August 8 1914, just four days after war was declared, the Evening Post newspaper reported that nearly 600 men in Wellington City had already volunteered for war service. George Davies was a schoolboy growing up in the working class Wellington suburb of Newtown. He recalls the enthusiasm to enlist among the men he knew.

This commercial sound recording includes what might be the first recorded version of 'Advance
Australia Fair', the
song that became Australia's national anthem. In music and drama, this production recreates the 1914
arrival of the Australian troops in Egypt, before their departure for
Gallipoli. It may have been aimed at giving those on the home front a sense of
the soldiers’ lives. The recording is very celebratory and full of pride at the role
Australia was playing in the Great War.

‘The Amazing Micrometer’, a machine measuring to one 40,000th of an inch, is one star of this 1916 film, made at Australia’s Colonial Ammunition Company. Many
of the factory’s workers are women, symbolising a community
united in the war effort and highlighting women’s vital contributions on the
home front. They are seen making .303 cartridges, packing them in cases, and filling a soldier’s
bandolier (ammunition belt). This is an extract from an hour-long documentary showing
how Australia ‘made and equipped the expeditionary forces’ to contribute to the
Allied cause during the Great War.